DIY River Song Tardis Journal

I think a collective gasp went through the Whovian world when we saw River Song’s journal for the first time. A gorgeous book made to look like the Tardis is a dream of any Doctor Who fan. When my daughter decided she wanted a Doctor Who birthday party, I knew the Tardis notebooks and crayons would make the perfect party favor. To cut down on costs, I made them myself. I was able to make all of them for less than $10 including the crayons. They are really easy to put together and you can make quite a few in an afternoon.

You will need:

Notebooks, you can use any size

Cardboard

Blue Paint

Blue Tissue Paper

Mod Podge

To make these for cheaper, I waited until back to school and stocked up on notebooks and crayons. You can usually get notebooks for .15-.20 cents and crayons for about .25 cents. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit the front of your notebook. Make sure to cut it small enough that it won’t interfere with the spiral or the binding on the notebook at all. Cut six squares out of the front of the cardboard. The size will depend on your size of notebook, but the goal is to make it look like the picture above. Hot glue or glue the cardboard to the front of the notebook.

Through trial and error, I discovered it makes the finished product look better if you paint the cardboard a Tardis blue. Paint it with a coat of paint and then allow it to dry completely before continuing onto the next step.

Apply a coat of Mod Podge to the front of your notebook and smooth the first piece of blue tissue paper on the top. Make sure to push the tissue paper into the corners of the squares. Allow it to dry and then repeat with a second piece of tissue. After the second piece has dried, fold the excess tissue around the edges of the notebook and Mod Podge to the inside cover.

In the above picture you can see notebook at each of the different stages. In the bottom left is a notebook with one piece of tissue, the bottom right is with two pieces. The top right the excess is being folded over and in the top left, the notebook is finished. Allow the notebooks to dry completely and pair with markers or crayons for a fun gift or favor.

As a fanatical Whovian, I often get asked if I let my kids watch the show. The answer is yes and no. I know a lot of kids love Doctor Who and have seen every episode, but I feel like it is pretty scary for my little ones. In the beginning I hand selected a few episodes to give my then 5-year-old a taste of Doctor Who and as she has gotten older we have watched more and more. Here are my top five kid friendly episodes of Doctor Who. Keep in mind, each episode has scary bits and it is probably best to preview the episodes if your kids are easily scared.

1. Partners in Crime. Who doesn’t love little adorable blobs of fat walking around like little babies? The Adipose episode features 10 and Donna. It is the episode where they reconnect after Donna originally decided to not travel with the Doctor and the moment when they find each other and pantomime through the windows to each other is one of my all time favorites.

2. The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe. This story takes place during WWII. 11, calling himself the caretaker takes it upon himself to make Christmas magical for a widow and her children. Though there are bumps along the way, he ends up giving them the best Christmas present of all.
3. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. A large spaceship is hurtling towards Earth and ISA plans to send missiles to the ship to stop it unless the Doctor can first. He lands aboard the ship and discovers it is full of dinosaurs. The dinosaurs make this the perfect episode for kids. My daughter loved it!
4. A Christmas Carol. When Karzan Sardick refuses to stop a crashing space ship the Doctor uses the Tardis to go back in time and change his mind. He visits him every Christmas Eve as a child and takes him on an adventure.I love this episode. I watch it every Christmas. My daughter’s favorite part of this episode is the flying sharks!
5. Gridlock. Taking traffic jams to the extreme, 10 and Martha get stuck in separate cars in a gridlock in New New York after Martha is kidnapped to allow the people doing the kidnapping to use the carpool lane. There are a few scenes with skeletons but overall the “monster” in this episode is more silly.

My absolute favorite episode of Doctor Who is a two parter, The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances, my daughter found the antagonist a little scary at first, but it has a very happy ending and she loved it. It should definitely be one you show your kids, but you might want to preview it first. It seems like it is one of the few episodes of Doctor Who where “Everybody Lives!” I would probably stay away from the Weeping Angels if your kids are scared easily, but make sure you show them Blink when you feel like they are ready!